Leaders
The G8 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The G8 summit was the first for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It was also the last for U.S. president George W. Bush, whose term-limited office denies him an opportunity to return to future G8 summits. Fukuda resigned as Japan's Prime Minister on September 1, he being the first of the G8 leaders at the summit to leave office.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy observed, "I think it is not reasonable to continue to meet as eight to solve the big questions of the world, forgetting China -- one billion 300 million people -- and not inviting India -- one billion people." Japan and the United States announced opposition to Sarkozy's implied suggestion.
Read more about this topic: 34th G8 Summit
Famous quotes containing the word leaders:
“The rank and file have let their servants become their masters and dictators.... Provision should be made in all union constitutions for the recall of leaders. Big salaries should not be paid. Career hunters should be driven out, as well as leaders who use labor for political ends. These types are menaces to the advancement of labor.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“In an ideal society, mothers and fathers would produce potty- trained, civilized, responsible new citizens while government and corporate leaders would provide a safe, healthy, economically just community.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)